Astral Pet Store

Tut-tut. Guess even gods aren’t all-powerful after all. ‘Survival for the fittest’ is a protocol we all have to follow. Su Ping slightly shook his head.

What the system told him reminded him of something interesting, and he meant to ask it.

“System, can I make pacts with these Void Bugs and take them as my pets?”

He just had a new idea. If those bugs could eat gods and underworld creatures to turn them into energy crystals he could use, it would be convenient if he could have such a pet and so he could take it to the Chaotic Realm of the Undead in the future.

The system remained silent for a while, before it replied in a somewhat sad tone, “All lifeforms may fall under the power of a pet contract…”

Su Ping was a bit puzzled by the strange reaction of the system, though he quickly forgot it since he was thrilled to realize that enslaving a Void Bug was doable.

“Nice. Guess I’ll use the remaining time looking for them.”

Little Skeleton and the Celestial Pig had finished digging up all the Divine Crystals they could find by then. Again, Su Ping chose to give the crystals to the Dark Dragon Hound, acquiring a second Divine Charge afterwards.

He wanted to find out what those charges could do to his pet right away.

“System, if I spend these charges to gain a temporary effect, would they be gone forever?”

“They will recover as time goes by, albeit very slowly, if you do not provide more Divine Crystals,” the system responded using its plain tone again.

Su Ping nodded and mentally commanded the Dark Dragon Hound to use its Divine Charges on the “Tearing Claw” skill. It was an eighth-rank combat skill the creature would often use.

The golden strands on the hound began to glow all of a sudden, followed by its front claws, which were also coated by a bright, yellow aura that was almost blinding inside the cave.

After gathering enough power, the hound rushed to the side and slammed its claws against the wall, carving a hole open that looked as big as a train tunnel, allowing Su Ping to see the sky and stars outside.

Su Ping was forced to stand up when the power of the attack made the ground shake. He could only stare at the destroyed wall with an open mouth.

That hit was at least three times deadlier than before. This common eighth-rank skill looked as effective as ninth-rank ones after the upgrade. If he could use the Divine Charges on rarer skills, his pet would be able to compete against real Beast Kings for a short while.

He looked at the Dark Dragon Hound again, who also looked scared by its own power, and noticed that the skill name had reverted to normal. Of course, the two Divine Charges had been spent. This seemed to be a new tool he could save up and use in a pinch. Also, he could increase the “stock” by gathering more Divine Crystals.

The aptitude level of the Dark Dragon Hound remained unchanged. Although its Combat Rating just had gained another 0.2 after it received the charges, reaching a 9.6 rating. This meant the hound was currently able to deal with average ninth-ranked opponents by itself.

It was an amazing feat for a beast that was only at the sixth rank. Too bad the hound could not break the limit of being a common species yet. Little Skeleton had a Combat Rating of 9.9 upon entering this realm, which remained at the same spot after all the battles during those days. If he had given the crystals to Little Skeleton, the rating could have breached 10 already.

Su Ping could feel that Little Skeleton was growing bit by bit. The last bit of rating before reaching 10 had to be a great bottleneck that required a ton of work, just like how ninth-rank pets needed the effort of a lifetime to become Beast Kings.

Would it be strange if an undead-type pet received divine power? I guess I can try that out later.

He jumped onto the Purple Python and decided to move on. Apart from training his pets, he had a new task at hand.

Two more days had passed.

The ground violently quaked as something large approached. Soon, five figures and their pets emerged from the woods, with an eye-catching adult Wyrm Hound taking the lead. It was a ninth-rank creature at the peak of its current level, also with a portion of divine blood in its body. After spending a few thousand years in this world, it had grown to be wiser than most humans.

“It’s another swarm, damn it!”

“There’s a void tear in there!!”

Those people didn’t look pleased as they ran from something that was chasing them.

Soon, the creepy, squeaking noises that suggested crawling insects were approaching.

A young man among the group suddenly stopped running. “You guys go ahead. I’ll stop them here!”

“Su?? Oh no you don’t!”

“We’re a team for fu**’s sake. We can’t abandon you!”

“Stand back, Su. If someone’s going to protect the team, it should be me, the leader.” A bigger member approached the younger one and smiled. “If there’s a next life for me, I’ll be sure to make friends with you again so we can drink till the world ends.”

“But captain…”

The young man suddenly unleashed a forceful aura around him that surprised all of his teammates.

“Come on, I’m not dying yet. I have my ways to escape. Just trust me and go!”

The woman riding the hound saw his serious look and chose to agree.

The young man gave his friends a reassuring smile; he summoned a dragon-type pet and went back to face the enemies.

Meanwhile, the team leader took the other members away, after giving their young friend a final, sad glance.

“We’ll remember you… my friend.”

The trees in the forest fell down one after one as if a farm tractor were rolling over them. Soon, the closest trees in view collapsed, revealing a large swarm of various insects madly marching to the young man’s position, instantly burying him and his dragon pet under their claws and teeth.

“All right. Ten minutes. They should be gone by now.” Su Ping muttered as he waited to select how to be revived.

He was planning to be revived on the spot this time. But not too soon, as he would only die again by the bugs’ embrace. He meant to wait for the majority of them to pass by, before he went back to bully weaker targets.

Huh. I wonder if those guys made it out.

Unfortunately, he was unable to check what was going on in his original position while he was “dead.”

The team he was in consisted of a group of adventurers who called themselves “divine descendants.” All things said, they only had a very small trace of divine blood inside their bodies, which had been left behind by perhaps their great-great-great-many-greats-grandparent S.

As for why Su Ping was hanging around with them… It was by pure accident.

Earlier, he had died and then resurrected in a location just outside the “city of gods,” where he had seen this team recruiting members for a bug-hunting mission, so he joined them to make his work easier.

The members of the team were pretty helpful on the way, even though most of their courageous actions weren’t necessary in Su Ping’s view. But still, he appreciated their kindness.

Since he didn’t have a clock in this dark “waiting room,” he had to estimate the passing of ten minutes by himself. As soon as he was revived, he expanded his astral perception to examine the immediate surroundings. Such an action successfully saved him 120 energy points because he had just seen another bug coming from behind him.

He quickly side-stepped a deadly biting attack, then he summoned the Dark Dragon Hound and Little Skeleton.

Splash!

A swing of the bone blade was all Little Skeleton needed to cut the enemy in half. This eighth-rank bug seemed to be pretty sturdy on the outside, though this was pointless against Little Skeleton’s blade which could cut through stone like tearing paper. As Su Ping summoned all of his pets, he carefully inspected further and saw a dozen more bugs nibbling the trees nearby, which all began moving towards him in the next second. Following Little Skeleton’s lead, his pets charged against the enemies. It seemed the “major force” of the bug army did not fully leave the forest just yet. Soon, the ruckus of the fight drew more of them.

With every direction being blocked by bugs, Su Ping had no choice but to be painfully overwhelmed again.

Now there was more waiting to be done in the “afterlife space.” He waited for half an hour this time, which seemed to be enough for the enemies to leave him alone.

By following the trail of destruction left behind, he began picking on random bugs that moved too slowly and successfully found some crystals for Little Skeleton. The hunt during those days had gotten him enough crystals to give each of his pets 3 Divine Charges except for the Celestial Pig.

This meant they all had a chance to unleash an enhanced version of their skills when necessary. Little Skeleton had amazingly gathered 8 charges since Su Ping had intentionally given it more resources. Apart from allowing Little Skeleton to execute “divine skills” up to three times, those charges had finally boosted its Combat Rating to 10.1.

Little Skeleton’s overall strength had reached that of a true Beast King. All the deaths had cost Su Ping a good amount of energy points. But the points had been well-spent considering the considerable improvement of his pets. Besides, the Celestial Pig’s Combat Rating had already surpassed 7, fulfilling the requirement of the special training task.

At the moment he only needed to wait for a few more hours to return to reality. The fatigue of his body didn’t prevent him from feeling mentally relaxed.

Two hours later, Su Ping found the main force of the bug army trying to build a nest on the side of a mountain. Since some of the bugs had a better perception than his Dark Dragon Hound, he was found out and was killed again together with his pets before he could do anything. Even his new friend-a Void Bug he had captured-could not help him negotiate a truce with the enemies.

This new bug pet was a seventh-rank, beetle-like member who had managed to reach the eighth rank soon under his care. Though it was still useless against its stronger kin. However, just like the other bugs, the beetle was also capable of converting something it ate into energy crystals, which was the main reason why Su Ping took it with him.

Since there was no point to going back to the bug nest and waste his energy points, he chose to go to a random spot and perhaps look for some souvenirs he could take back before the end of the timer.

At first, he saw something white in his view.

There was a nice smell of perfume around him. Looking up, he found himself standing in front of a gigantic bed, on which a girl was picking her nose with a really bored look.